The city’s animal control officer said Thursday there is no animal abuse to cluck about in a case involving a rooster on the lam.

“It was not an animal cruelty situation,” said Animal Control Officer Tom DeChellis.

City animal officials were trying to catch the skittish, rust-colored rooster – which was still loose as of noon Thursday – near West Harvard and Grafton streets, he said.

Neighbors initially reported seeing someone throw what ap peared to be an animal from a Mazda early Wednesday night. They then saw the frightened fowl take refuge behind a house.

But police caught up with the occupants of the Mazda, and found no evidence that the rooster had been in the car, DeChellis said. Another neighbor told authorities the rooster has been a familiar fowl in the neighborhood for some time.

Officers responded to West Harvard Street at 12:23 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a report that a pedestrian had been struck by a car and that someone had thrown what appeared to be an animal out of the car. No one was injured in the incident.